In this Red Dead Redemption 2 Poker Table Game Guide, we will give you a detail description of how Poker works in RDR2 as well as tips on maximizing your profits. In our Poker Guide, we will go through some details on how it works, Poker table locations, card priority, and some handy tips and tricks to help you secure more wins.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Poker
Poker is one of the many optional activities that players can take part in order to earn some easy money. What sets Poker apart from “other Table Games” is that it has the potential to win you the highest reward of all the available game in RDR2. However, winning the highest reward requires skill and patience.
You play Poker a few times during the “main campaign of Red Dead Redemption 2”. You can play it only at two locations in the game except for some campaign shenanigans.
Poker is one of the “Table Games” you can play at camp along with Blackjack, Five Fingers, and Dominoes. All four games are on rotation and only one of them can be played. Rotation changes every day.
Poker can also be played in a Salon in Saint-Denis. This will be the location if you want to make big in Poker.
How to Play Poker?
Poker can be played with up to 9 players with a minimum of 2 players needed to play the game. Each player will start with 2 cards in the hand called “Hole Cards”.
The first round of betting will start from the left of the dealer. Every player will get a choice of Check, Fold, and Raise.
“Check” is that you want to continue the game without betting anything. “Fold” is you don’t want to continue the game. You won’t have to leave the table; just the current round.
Raise is you want to increase the bet in the game. If someone in current turn has raised; you won’t be able to check you will either have to match the current raise which is called “Call” or you will have to fold. You can also re-raise on a raise.
“All-in” is the maximum amount of “Raise” you can do. This is a high-level play that is not recommended for starters.
Betting will continue until when the bet reaches the last person in the turn and everyone has either “Checked” or matched the raised amount. This whole process is called “Pre-Flop” betting. After the first round, the dealer will show 3 cards which are called “The Flop”.
After the Flop, another round of betting will commence and when done, the dealer will show the 4th card called the “Turn”. Following the Turn, another round of betting will commence and at the end, the dealer will show the last card which is called the “River”.
After the River, there will be last round of betting and everyone will show their cards. The “Pot” will be calculated which is the total amount of money in the current game. 5 best ranking cards out 7 will be chosen for everyone and players with the highest ranking in RDR2 Poker will win.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, Poker is played in clockwise movement and starts from the first player to the left of the dealer. Some Poker games are played with a minimum bet to start which are called “Binds”.
There is some flexibility in “Binds” depending on house rules. Every play will have to match the big binds to join the game. Some tables don’t enforce big binds and you start the game from zero.
The player on the big bind will always have the player on the left of him on small bind which will be half of the big bind amount i.e. $1.
Binds represent your position on the table which is very important. Both in terms of intel on the players and your position in the game. Last players in a turn will have a higher advantage over the others due to the betting patterns of other 8 players in the game.
At the end of the game, the player with the highest 5 cards in hand wins the round.
Poker Card Rankings and Winning Combinations
This image shows the Poker ranking as well the probability of you getting the desired cards. In card ranking, A is the highest ranked card and 2 is the lowest ranked card in Poker.
A, K, Q, J, 10 of the same suit is called a Royal Flush. Royal Flush is the best thing you can have in the game which has a 100% chance of you winning.
Straight Flush is same as Royal Flush but with smaller cards. It can be anything smaller than Royal, for example, K, Q, J, 10, 9 of the same suit will be a Straight Flush. With 5, 4, 3, 2, A being the lowest possible Straight Flush.
Straight Flush can be beaten by another Straight Flush of higher order i.e. if you have a Straight Flush of 5, 4, 3, 2, A, it can be beaten by 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 or higher. It’s still considered one of the strongest cards in the game.
“Four-of-a-Kind” is a Pair of four same cards i.e. A, A, A, A albeit weaker than a Straight Flush but you can be sure about winning in this scenario.
Pro-Tip: If there is no double card on the table beside yours and there is also no chance of flush or a possible Straight Flush, you will have 100% chance to win.
“Full House” contains 3 of the same rank cards and 2 of the same rank cards. In ranking players with higher of 3 of the same rank cards will win. If the first 3 of both players are same then the player with higher 2 of same rank card wins. If that is same as well you will split the pot.
Flush is a hand which contains five cards of the same suit. Cards are not needed to be of the same sequence to be a flush. The player will the highest rank card of flush will win.
Straight is a hand which contains five cards in a sequence. They don’t need to be of the same suit, player with the higher ranked straight will win.
Before we go further, you will have to know the concept of the “Kicker”. The kicker is a fifth card that is rather irrelevant in your pairing but comes into relevance if 2 or more players have the same pairs.
The higher ranked card will decide the game. If the game is still even, the pot will split. The kicker is not limited to one.
3 of a Kind is a hand which consists of 3 cards of the same rank. If two players have the same 3 of the Kind, the person with high of the two cards will win. If the game is still undecided, the pot will split.
“2 Pair” is the hand which contains 2 pairs of 2 different ranked cards i.e. K, K, Q, Q and the player with higher ranked Pair will win a secondary pair is not important. For instance, A, A, 2, 2 will win against K, K, Q, Q as A is higher ranked card than K. If players have the same 2 Pairs, the Kicker will decide the game.
“1 Pair” is a single pair of same ranked cards. The higher ranked Pair will win the pot and if 2 or more players have the same pair the Kicker will decide the winner.
The player with highest of the 3 other cards will win the pot. In case it’s still undecided, the secondary card will come to play and the player with the higher ranked card will win.
High Card is the last deciding factor in Poker if players do not have anything from above the pot will be decided on the High Card. The player with a high-rank card will win and if it’s still undecided, the player with Secondary Kicker will win.
How to Win Poker Games in RDR2
Poker is a game which is rather easy to learn but it’s very hard to master. It is a game of incomplete information and you guess the outcome with mathematical calculations. If you are good at math, it will help you but if math is not your cup of tea you can still win a lot by playing smart.
Starting Hands
Your starting hands in Poker are fundamentally important but these are only 2 cards out of 7. If you get good Hole Cards, you still need the flop to get some idea on where the hand is going.
If you are amateur at Poker and just starting to get the hang of it, it is not recommended to play big Pre-Flop even with Pocket A’s because it is still one pair and you will need massive help from the table.
Strategic Thinking
In Poker, the first thing you do is to check for possibilities of the best combinations you can have and then act accordingly.
Second is what other players can have judging from their betting patterns and this is what separates good Red Dead Redemption 2 Poker players from others.
Playing all the hands will not make you win. You will have to choose the best of cards for you to play and it’s always better to back off if you are having doubts.
There is always the next round so folding few rounds if you are not confident either at the start or mid won’t do any harm. Knowing when to fold will save you a lot of cash.
Playing Big Hands
What I noticed when playing the Poker in RDR2 is that AI a lot of the times thinks you are bluffing and will make a call.
You can abuse this to get a lot of money really fast. For example, if you have a really good card raise twice the number of big binds and see the reaction of the table.
If you notice people think that you are bluffing raise even bigger. Now people will get confused but since they have invested a lot they will continue to call.
In the end, you go massively if you are still sure about winning this can net you a really big amount of cash. Players’ reactions on the table tell a lot about their cards so be vary.
All-in is a lot riskier but in most scenarios, I noticed AI will call for it; this bug was present in the original Red Dead Redemption as well so people who have played the previous game will know about it.
Mid-Game
The real game starts when the Flop Cards are revealed and most players have problems playing that part of the game.
At this time, if you are one of the first players to play the turn; it is generally recommended to check to evaluate your position in the table unless you are sure that you can compete and win that round.
The last player in the turn will always have the advantage of over others but the first carry the element of surprise.
It’s always beneficial to not showcase your cards with high “Bids” and wait for someone to do it for you if there is no one then you proceed with a small raise.
If you there are a lot of calls, you raise higher on the Turn Card. On the “River”, if you confident you will win raise a lot bigger.
Tilting
Win/Lose is part of the game so if you are losing, take a break and play some other time. It’s better than losing everything, composure is important and will help you a lot in judging your situation.
At times, you will win big which makes you confident and prone to mistakes. If you can win the game on all-ins, you can also lose. Emotional play will result in poor decision making and losing you a lot of money in Poker.
This pretty much concludes RDR2 Poker Guide!
